How do you feel about the number 7?

Interlink customers shouldn’t let delay slow their progress

By William E. (Bill) Garber
Interlink founder

Google offers way more than seven explanations for why people are often impressed with seven of anything. Interlink clients have their own reasons, including seven for why they will be continuing with their plans to implement Full-Service Intelligent Mail® as soon as possible, even though the Postal Service had to pull the plug on the January 26 deadline.

1. Pocket money. The sooner a weekly claims the Full-Service Intelligent Mail® postage discount, the more savings will accumulate over the years. Of course, this is only about $100 annually for a 2,000-subscription weekly. But, it is a rare publisher who wouldn’t reach down to pick up a $50 bill or two off the street.

2. More consistent delivery. Full-Service Intelligent Mail® is highly visible on the outside of every sack, tub and other handling units. Postal workers from dock, to plant, to post office know Full-Service Intelligent Mail® when they see it; they also know that ‘the system’ has seen it and knows it is right in front of them. The sooner your newspapers travel in Full-Service Intelligent Mail® handling units, the sooner subscribers will enjoy more consistent delivery.

Wow! Another sharp turn on Postal Service roller coaster

By William E. (Bill) GarberInterlink founder

When the Postal Service announced the day after Thanksgiving that they will not require Full-Service Intelligent Mail® next month as planned, Helen Sosniecki, Interlink’s senior sales and marketing manager and NNA McKinney Award-recognized former community newspaper publisher, was not particularly surprised.

“Long-time publishers have been down this road with the Postal Service before so it’s not surprising that many may have taken the January deadline with a grain of salt. It’s also why there is always such a flurry of activity whenever a Postal Service deadline is implemented,” she said.

Many Interlink clients will remember their adventure as the Postal Service started integrating Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) requirements 20 years ago.

Full-Service Intelligent Mail – Whatâ€™s really in it for the community newspaper publisher?

By William E. (Bill) GarberInterlink Founder and Chairman

All calculations start with the 14 cents per subscription that adding Full-Service Intelligent Mail will add to Interlinkâ€™s annual license fee.

Savings from just Automation Rate discounts that require Full-Service Intelligent Mail as of Jan. 26, 2014, will exceed the Full-Service Intelligent Mail cost differential for more than 90% of Interlink clients.

In short, when consideringÂ onlyÂ Automation Rate discounts, 90% of Interlink clients will pay less cash out in 2014 while using Interlink Circulation than if Interlink had kept its 2013 license rate and had not included Full-Service Intelligent Mail.

Full-Service Intelligent Mail – What’s really in it for the community newspaper publisher?

By William E. (Bill) GarberInterlink Founder and Chairman

All calculations start with the 14 cents per subscription that adding Full-Service Intelligent Mail will add to Interlink’s annual license fee.

Savings from just Automation Rate discounts that require Full-Service Intelligent Mail as of Jan. 26, 2014, will exceed the Full-Service Intelligent Mail cost differential for more than 90% of Interlink clients.

In short, when considering only Automation Rate discounts, 90% of Interlink clients will pay less cash out in 2014 while using Interlink Circulation than if Interlink had kept its 2013 license rate and had not included Full-Service Intelligent Mail.

What can publishers in the age of the Internet learn from sailors in the age of Gutenberg?

William E. (Bill) Garber

American political scientist and author George Friedman takes us to the navigation school where Vasco da Gama, who made the first voyage from Europe to India, and Ferdinand Magellan, who first circumnavigated the globe, studied nearly a century before Columbus sailed to the New World.

Just 3 miles west of Cabo de Sao Vicente at the base of the Ponta de Sagres lies Sagres, a pleasant little town of small villas and apartments. For the most part, these are summer homes, many owned by Germans and British, judging from the flags flying. It was here in 1410 that Prince Henry the Navigator founded a school for navigators. If Cabo de Sao Vicente is where the Earth ended for the Europeans, Ponta de Sagres became the place where the world began.

It takes a village to support a community

William E. (Bill) Garber

I was sitting beside Lacey, on the flight between Denver and San Jose earlier this week. I wouldn’t be using my drink coupons, so when he claimed the aisle seat beside me, and by way of introducing myself, I offered the pair to him. He smiled and thanked me.

Later when the flight attendant asked for our drink request, I ordered complimentary tonic water and Lacey ordered a vodka and cranberry juice. When they arrived, mine had the lime in it. Lacey mentioned that he had ordered a Cape Cod, but hadn’t called it that and hadn’t asked for the lime. I had forgotten to skip the lime, so it all worked out just fine when my lime ended up in Lacey’s Cape Cod. He remembered the absent lime an hour later when he ordered his second Cape Cod.(more…)

U.S. Senate Internet sales tax proposal may help community newspapers

By William E. (Bill) Garber

The US Senate passed a nonbinding proposal to test where there is support in Congress to implement sales tax collections across state lines. Its overwhelming support may very well be good for community newspapers. Here is why.

The proposal exempts businesses with sales of under $1 million through the Internet. It is rare that a community newspaper sells $1 million of anything through the Internet that would otherwise be subject to sales tax. This means the vast majority and possibly all community newspapers would be exempt. Otherwise, a community newspaper could be required to pay sales tax on a subscription sold three states over if that state required sales tax on newspaper subscriptions, and a number now do.

If this standard became law, it is possible that community newspapers now required to report sales tax on subscriptions sold to distant destinations within their state could become exempt, ending this annoyance. To become exempt, of course, the state would have to adopt the national policy for in-state sales, exempting transactions of companies doing less than $1 million of Internet sales even in state. This is not likely across the board, but some states may just try to keep everything really simple and have a single policy, particularly if their revenue goes up noticeably overall, which is highly likely.

Finally, if states now demanding community newspapers collect sales tax based on the delivery address were to continue to demand this, collection could be made much simpler and therefore less costly. To qualify for receiving sales tax, each state would have to adopt the national system. This would greatly reduce the cost of implementing sales tax management for every business, as a single system would meet the requirements of all 40-some states collecting sales taxes.

Here is a report directed to the technical community that would be required to implement this proposal. Click here for link to article.